223
224 Alive Loon ha.
225 Dead La wan ha yun.
226 Life Yun ha.
227 Death Ya wu ha yah.
228 Cold Yut ho lah.
229 Hot Yu ta le han.
230 Sour Ta yo yo gis.
231 Sweet Ya wa gon.
232 Bitter Yut ska lot.
233 I Ee.
234 Thou Eesa.
_He_ _she._
235 He or she La oon ha—a oon ha.
236 We Tat ne jah loo.
237 You Eesa.
238 They Lo no hah.
239 This Kah e kah.
240 That To e kuh.
241 All A qua kon.
242 Part Ta kah ha sioun.
243 Many A so.
244 Who Hon ka.
245 Near Ac tah.
246 Far-off E non.
247 To-day Ka wan da.
248 Yesterday Ta tan.
249 To-morrow A yul ha na.
250 Yes Ha.
251 No Yah ten.
252 Perhaps To ga no nah.
253 Above A nah kan.
254 Wonder An ta ka.
255 Within Na gon.
256 Without Ats ta.
257 On Ka ha le.
258 Something Ot hok no ho ta.
259 Nothing Ya ha ta non.
260 One Ans cot.
261 Two Da ga nee.
262 Three Ha son.
263 Four Ki ya lee.
264 Five Wisk.
265 Six Yah yak.
266 Seven Ja dak.
267 Eight Ta ka lon.
268 Nine Wa tlon.
269 Ten O ya lee.
270 Eleven Ans cot ya wa la.
271 Twelve Da ga na ya wa la.
272 Thirteen Ha son ya wa la.
273 Fourteen Ki ya lu ya wa la.
274 Fifteen Wisk ya wa la.
275 Sixteen Ya yah ya wa la.
276 Seventeen Ja dak ya wa la.
277 Eighteen Ta ka lon ya wa la.
278 Nineteen Wa tlon ya wa la.
279 Twenty Ta was hon.
280 Thirty Ha son ne was hon.
281 Forty Ki ya lu ne was.
282 Fifty Wisk ne was.
283 Sixty Yah yak ne was.
283 Seventy Ja dak ne was.
284 Eighty Ta ka lon ne was.
285 Ninety Wa tlon ne was.
286 One hundred Ans cot ta wa ne a wa.
287 Two hundred Da ga na ta wa ne a wa.
288 One thousand O ya lee ta wa ne a wa.
289 Two thousand Ta was ha ta wa ne a wa.
290 Million O ya lu ta wa ne a wa-o ya lee ta wa ne a wa.
291 To eat Yon take hon ne.
292 To drink Yah na kee lah.
293 To run Yah dak ha.
294
295 To walk Ee yun.
296
297 To dance Ta yunt qua.
298 To laugh Yah go yas hon.
299 To cry Da yon unt os.
300 To burn U dek ha.
301 To love Ee no lon qua.
302 To go Wa hon ta de.
303 To strike Wa a gon lek.
304 To kill Wa gon wa lew.
305 To sing Ka lon no ta.
306 To sleep Ya go tas.
307 To die Wa a ee ha ya.
308 To sit Ya day lon.
309 To speak Ya god ha la.
310 To see Wa ont kot.
311 To hear Yah got hon day.
312 To think Yonnon ton nion ha.
313 To shout Tay ya go hon let.
314 The war cry At lee yos la tay ya go hon let.
315 To shout Ta ya go hon let.
316 The retreat Wa ha day go.
317 To give Wa han da don.
318 To carry Yay ha we.
319 To tie Ka warn.
320 Walking Ee yen.
321 Singing Ka lon no ta.
322 Dancing Ta hat qua.
323 Crying Das yon unt os.
324 To exist Ya gon ha.
325 I am E gon ha.
The preceding part of this vocabulary, taken by myself, together with
the entire vocabularies of the Onondaga and the Seneca, which are
necessary to render the comparison complete, are omitted.
(N.)
Letter from Mr. D. E. Walker to Henry R. Schoolcraft.
_Batavia, July 26th, 1845._
MR. SCHOOLCRAFT: I have visited the mound on Dr. Noltan’s
farm. Nothing of great importance can be learned from it. I should
think it about fifty rods from the creek, and elevated, perhaps, some
eight feet above the general level of the ground.
A similar one is also found about two miles south of this, and, as is
this, it is on high ground, of circular form, and with a radius of
about one rod. They were discovered about thirty or thirty-five years
since. Nothing has been found in them, save human bones. The first,
some nine or ten years since, was nearly all ploughed up and scraped
into the road.
It is said that “sculls, arms and legs were seen on fences, stumps and
the high-way for a long time after they were drawn into the road.”
On, some two miles beyond the second was discovered a burial-ground.
At that place were ploughed up shell, bone, or quill-beads. Near this
place was found a brown earthen pot, standing between the roots of
a large tree, (maple, they think) and with a small sapling grown in
it, to some six inches in diameter. Beads of shell, bone or porcupine
quills have often been found. I would have remarked, that on the first
mound stood a hickory-tree some two feet through. There is also a ridge
at the termination of high ground; I say a ridge, it appeared to me to
be a regular fortification. It is, I should judge from thirty to forty
feet in length. It would appear that the ground was dug down from some
distance back, and wheeled to the termination of high ground, until
a bank is thrown up to a height of some fifteen or twenty feet. This
ridge, some think to be natural; others, from the fact that a smooth
stone, about the size and shape of a pestle, was found in it, think
it to be artificial. Perhaps other relics may have been found in it
that would show it to be an artificial formation. All I could learn
(and I rode about seven miles out of my way to converse with an old
inhabitant) was, that this pestle was found in the ridge, and within
three or four feet of its surface.
We may, perhaps, infer something from the size of an underjaw found
here, _which is said to have been so large as to much more than equal
that of the largest face in the country_.
Respectfully.
D. E. WALKER.
(O.)
Letter from H. C. Van Schaack, Esq. to Henry R. Schoolcraft.
_Manlius, July 18th, 1845._
DEAR SIR: Yours of yesterday from Jamesville is received.
Its enclosure is the first intimation I have of having been chosen a
corresponding member of the N. Y. Historical Society. I shall be happy
to advance the objects of the Society.
I regret that you have not found it convenient to call, I hope you will
still conclude to come. In the interim, I am convinced that Mr. C. can
advance your objects better than I can; he has read several addresses
on these subjects before the Literary Associations here and at Syracuse
within two years past.
I have a collection of interesting papers (found among my father’s
papers at Kinderhook) relating chiefly to Indian affairs during the
first half of the last century in the colony of New-York. These I am
arranging, at my leisure, for the purpose of presentation to the N. Y.
H. Society. I hope also to be able to send some papers of my father’s
which will advance the object of the society in rescuing the Indian
names on the east banks of the Hudson from oblivion, and which last I
had intended to forward to the Society through you. But I must take my
time to effect those objects.
Excuse the haste with which this letter is written, as I have only this
moment received your letter, and I do not wish to lose a mail.
Respectfully yours.
_Manlius, Nov. 22nd, 1845._
DEAR SIR: I forwarded to Mr. Gibbs, the librarian, a few days
ago a volume containing various MSS. selected from my father’s papers,
relating chiefly to our aboriginal history, and about which I wrote you
some time ago. You will find among them the journal of Conrad Weiser,
Indian interpreter, giving an account of a visit to the Six Nations in
1745, at which time he accompanied the Senecas to Oswego, on their way
to pay a visit to the Governor of Canada. You will also find among the
papers, the original minutes of the Grand Council at Albany, in 1745,
at which were present commissioners from Massachusetts, Connecticut,
Pennsylvania, and New-York, with Governors from several of those States
and the Sachems of the Six Nations. I think you will be interested in
some of the papers. When I visit Kinderhook again, I hope to be able
to make some additions to the contribution I have made to the Society.
Many of the old papers relating to land trials, contain matter throwing
light upon Indian names of objects and places. I, however, despair of
ever seeing anything like a completeness of that description.
Respectfully yours,
H. C. VAN SCHAACK.
(P.)
Letter from L. T. Morgan, Esq., to H. R. Schoolcraft.
_Rochester, October 7, 1845._
SIR—You have doubtless seen a notice of the great council
of the Six Nations, recently held at Tonawanda. We call it great,
because we never saw any thing of the kind before, and perhaps never
will again. Three of us started in season, and spent the whole of last
week in attendance, and were also joined by Mr. Hurd, a delegate from
Cayuga. We were there before the council opened, and left after the
fire was raked up. Our budget of information is large, and overthrows
some of our past knowledge, and on the whole, enlarges our ideas of the
vastness and complexity of this Indian fabric. We are a great way from
the bottom yet; we may never reach it, but what we do bring up to the
surface, remunerates richly for the search.
We learn that at the establishment of the confederacy, fifty
sachemships were founded, and a name assigned to each, which they are
still known by, and which names every sachem of the several sachemdoms,
from the beginning to the present time, has borne. There were also
fifty sub-sachems, or aids; that is, to every sachem was given a
sub-sachem to stand behind him—in a word, to do his bidding. These
sachemships are still confined to the five nations; the Tuscaroras
were never permitted to have any. They are unequally divided among
the five nations, the Onondagas having as many as fourteen. The eight
original tribes or families still hold to be correct, as we had it,
but each tribe did not have a sachem. In some of the tribes were two
or three, in others none. As the English would say the Howard family
had a peerage in it, so would the Indians say that a certain tribe or
clan had one or two or no sachemships running in it. The idea seems to
be that the sachem did not preside over a tribe, as that would leave
some tribes destitute; but the nine Oneida sachems, for instance,
ruled the Oneida nation conjointly, and when the nations met in
council, would represent it. The fifty sachems were the only official
characters known at the councils of the confederacy. The sub-sachems
and chiefs had nothing to say. And unanimity, as in the Polish diet,
was always necessary. Over this council, the Tha-do-da-hoh, or great
sachem of the confederacy, presided. He was always taken from the
Onondagas, as we heretofore supposed; but what is very important, it is
denied that there was any such officer as a Tokarihogea, or military
chieftain over the confederacy. They recognize no such office, and
deny that Brant was any thing but a chief, or an officer of the third
and lowest class. I sifted this matter thoroughly, in conversations
with Blacksmith, La Fort, Capt. Frost, and Dr. Wilson, a Cayuga, and
am satisfied that the Tha-do-da-hoh[115] was the chief ruler of the
Iroquois, and that they had no other. We fell into this error by
following Stone, who in the Life of Brant, pretends to establish in
him the title of war chieftain or Tokarihogea of the confederacy. In
relation to the head warriors or military leaders of the nations, there
is still some obscurity. The Seneca nation has two, but the other
nations none. The truth is, the learning, if we may so call it, of the
Iroquois is in the hands of a few, and it is very difficult to reach
it, as those who are the most learned are the most inveterate Indians,
and the least communicative.
[115] This is a Seneca pronunciation of the name written
ATOTARHO, by Cusick, and Tatotarho, by another and older
authority. For a figure of this noted primary ruler, as it is given in
Iroquois picture writing, see page 132.